Basic Feng Shui Cure #8: Elemental Colors Balance the Chi for Good Fortune

Note: This series explores the 9 basic Feng Shui cures.

Color plays an instrumental role in Feng Shui. Colors evoke different moods based on our personal preferences, cultural traditions, and simply the way they can open or close a space.

For instance, white or beige is a great color for a foyer or small, narrow hallway, as it makes the space seem wider and more welcoming. In China, red is considered a color of good fortune, and is a good color for a door or accent colors in a room.

You can also use the color that corresponds to the element in that section of the Ba Gua. In other words, black or purple would activate the wealth section of your home.

Finally, you can employ the elemental color cycle in your home to balance the chi of a space. The five-elemental color cycle, in spite of its name, can be used in versions of either three, four, or five colors. You can learn more about the five elemental color destructive and creative cycles in the article, “Use the Feng Shui Five Element Color Cycle to Change Your Life.”

Color selection in Feng Shui relies heavily on personal preference and intuition, but understanding the psychology and culture behind certain colors can help lead you in the right direction when picking the colors for your home.

3 Myths About Creating The Life You Desire

A lot of misinformation about Feng Shui, intention and creating your perfect life circulates the Web. Let's explore three myths about Feng Shui and the power of intention.

1. You are not in control of your life.

Aspects such as your environment, your name, and your upbringing affect your life. Also, some people are just “born lucky.” While it's true that luck and destiny are factors that can change your life, we can overcome the odds by taking responsibility for our actions, minimizing the effects of negative events, and maximizing the return on “lucky” events and opportunities.

2. Other people can manifest their own destiny, but I can't.

They must be smarter or more evolved than I am. Anyone can use Feng Shui, meditation, visualization and intention to manifest everything they want in life. Often, people come to this realization following a near death experience or other powerful, life-changing event in their lives. But if you are tired of your situation and feeling stuck, you have the power to change your circumstances.

3. Feng Shui is complicated.

When you hear people talking about the ba gua and the “wealth corner” of your home, or using the five-elemental color cycle to activate the chi in a given area, you might get the impression that Feng Shui is complicated. That's not true. Many of the Feng Shui tips I share in this space can be applied quickly, easily and inexpensively -- and you'll begin to see results right away.


If you'd like to take Feng Shui in your home to the next level, though, you may want to call in an expert. I can help you evaluate the chi of your space, recommend changes to your environment, and even perform a space cleansing. Check out my Consulting Services for more information. 

Five Easy Ways to Enhance Your Creativity for Greater Success

Whether or not you work in what you might call a creative field, your creativity can help you increase your wealth by expanding your possibilities for income. When we look at life through creative eyes, we are also more joyful and one step closer to be aligned to our true self.

If you work in a creative field -- such as graphic design, advertising or writing -- it's easy to see how enhancing your creativity can lead to increased wealth. But whatever you do for a living -- whatever your passion -- thinking creatively will help you:

- See things from other people's perspectives, which helps in sales and negotiations
- Think of creative moneymaking ideas
- Think of new ways to accomplish your objectives
- Make every day a joyous experience as you get the most out of life and use your talents to help others.

Here are five easy ways to enhance your creativity.

1. Brainstorm/mindmap - Get in the practice of thinking up crazy, fun ideas by creating mindmaps on paper, where one idea sparks another and another.

2. Open your eyes to experience the world around you. When we really look at our surroundings, it helps us see new things. As we see new things, we begin attracting new, creative ideas.

3. Be open to anything. When we begin life as a child, our imagination knows no limits. We're all creative. As adults, our own inner voice and the voices of others, stifle our creativity. Phrases like, “That's impossible,” “That will never work,” and “That's ridiculous” cause us to impose limits on our thoughts. Stifle those inner voices and ignore those negative words when they come from others. No idea is too crazy if you believe it can be done.

4.Use Feng Shui to activate the chi in the creativity/children area of your home. When you lay the bagua out over your house or apartment's floor plan, looking into the room from the door, the children and creativity area is the section against the right wall, up to the center of the space. It is between the love and relationships and travel/helpful people sections.

To activate the chi in this area, you can hang decorative firecrackers in the space to give your imagination a “spark.” You can also use live plants to introduce living chi into the area. White flowers correspond to the element of metal, represented in this section of the bagua.

Adding a cheerful sounding metal bell or windchimes to the space also activates the chi with lively sound.

5. Use Feng Shui colors for enhanced creativity. It's hard to be creative if you're dressed in depressing grays or blacks. Rainbow colors and bright colors that follow the five-elemental color cycle will help you be more creative. Bright greens and white are also good colors for creativity. Use colors and the rest of these creativity techniques to create the life of your dreams.

What do you think?

While you’re here, I’d like to introduce you to several consulting options to help you grow and transform your life or business. Come along with me on this journey and embrace all the possibilities waiting for you just around the corner.

Meet the Love of Your Life in the Right Clothes

Are you seeking love? Commitment? Fulfillment in a romantic relationship and an eventual family? It all starts with a first date.

What you wear on that first date can increase the odds you'll form a powerful connection with potential for a long-term relationship. On the other hand, the wrong choice in clothes can make you disappear quickly from the person's mind as soon as the door closes on the evening.

Red to Turn Heads
If you want to turn heads, a red dress or shirt will do the trick. This sends a message that you are a person full of passion. Red, often the color of a Chinese wedding dress, is an auspicious color for most occasions, and especially for a woman or man seeking a mate.

Pink or Peach for Seduction
If you want to show that you're open to seduction -- and looking for a more intimate connection -- a pale peach or beige satin top, which blends with your skin and gives the illusion that you are almost nude, sends a subtle message to your date that you are both daring and passionate. Pink has the added benefit of being a lucky color for finding a marriage partner.

Whatever you wear, make sure you are comfortable. An outfit that is flattering in its fit, cut and colors will give you tremendous confidence before you even leave your home. That confidence will project itself as a radiating inner light, attracting others -- including that special someone -- to you.

Dress to Enhance Your Chi
If you want to impress your date, you can choose colors that enhance your most positive inner traits or, alternatively, colors that correspond with your sign in the Chinese zodiac. These colors strengthen your chi.

For instance, if you are creatively charged and ready to deliver stimulating conversation -- and looking for someone who can do the same - wear blue, red or purple.

If you wish to showcase your natural compassion, green, blue, black or red will send a message to your date. Black can also indicate wisdom, class and style. (Think of a black tie affair.) However, to avoid depressing black chi that could overwhelm the otherwise happy occasion, dress up the outfit with colorful accessories, such as a red evening bag.

By strengthening your chi for a special occasion like a first date, you increase your own confidence. The right colors also change the way people perceive you and affect their chi in a positive manner, as well.

Rainbow Colors to Connect
Most people respond to rainbow colors. Salespeople often wear this color in order to appeal to a broad variety of buyers; this technique can work on a date, too. Rainbow colors enhance every type of chi and support the virtues of all five elements.

It takes a certain personality type to pull off a rainbow outfit without looking like a clown. Consider, instead, using rainbow elements on your undergarments or in very small doses, like on a piece of jewelry.

The Five Elemental Colors
Instead of a rainbow, you can employ the five-elemental colors in any order on your outfit to bring good fortune during a first date. Using the five elemental colors in an outfit is a special Feng Shui technique used to increase your fortune during important events.

You can see that Feng Shui can help you dress for a successful first date. With so many different color options that will help you make it a night to remember, you can choose the combination that works best for you.

I'm curious, do you have a favorite first date outfit or color that you really like?

Make Sure Your Life is Moving Forward in the Right Color Car

Shopping for a car? You can select a car in a color to help balance your chi. For instance, if you are a bit low-key and would like to inject more energy into your life, a red car will get your own internal motors revving. On the other hand, a black or gray car will calm road rage in someone who is easily excitable.

You can choose a car using the five-element destructive or creative cycle color schemes, or you can select a car based on your Chinese Zodiac sign. Unlike Western horoscopes, which rely on your month of birth to calculate your sign, the Chinese Zodiac depends on the year you were born. You can use this chart to find out your sign.

Just as elements and segments of the bagua relate to certain colors, so do Chinese zodiac animals. Choosing a color car that relates to your Chinese Zodiac sign will enhance your chi and bring good fortune.

Choosing a Color for a Shared Car

Many couples have one car that they share. You'll see from the list below that there is lots of overlap in colors that correspond to the Chinese Zodiac signs. It may be easy to select a car color that will work well with both owners.

You can also select “complementary” colors, based on the five-element color cycle, which gives you even more options to select a car color that fits both owners and that also fits your personal taste.

If you can't find a matching color, you can select a two-toned car to relate to each person's best color, or you can select a color for the primary driver and apply racing stripes or accents in the spouse's color. You can also choose an exterior to match one partner and the interior to be a good fit for the other driver.

Remember, your chi is the most important factor in selecting a color for your car. For instance, if you were born in the year of the horse but are prone to speeding tickets and need to balance your “fire” chi, don't select a red car.

Here are the colors that correspond to the 12 animals of the Chinese Zodiac:

Rat: black
Ox: black, green, dark green
Tiger: black, green, dark green
Rabbit: Green, blue
Dragon: blue, green, pink, red, purple
Snake: blue, green, pink, red, purple
Horse: red, pink
Ram: brown, red, pink
Monkey: brown, red, pink
Rooster: white
Dog: white, gray, black
Pig: white, gray, black

What color car do you currently drive? Does it complement your chi and your Chinese Zodiac sign?

Six Common Ailments and How to Cure Them Using Feng Shui

Have a sore throat? Wearing the color black, especially near or around your throat, or sipping tea with honey from a black cup, may help. That's because a sore throat is believed to be caused by too much fire chi, and black -- the color of water -- will cool the pain. Aqua and green will also soothe a sore throat.

There are very few pains and ailments that can't be alleviated, if not cured, using the powers of Feng Shui and color. You can apply "color cures" -- that is, use colors that correspond with that area of the ba gua -- to heal pain and discomfort.

Because parts of the body also correspond with each of the elements, you can choose colors that will create, enhance or complement these elements.

Here are some common ailments and the colors you should use to feel better. Of course, apply these color cures with common sense and always seek medical attention for persistent or recurring health problems. You can also use colorful, nutritious foods to fight disease and improve your health.

1. Headache - The soothing colors of pink and green will help you fight a headache, as will white and gray, which corresponds with the "helpful people" section of the ba gua.

2. Sore throat - black, aqua, green

3. Flu - Use red to cure the flu, which is a water ailment and red will "boil it out." You can also use blue and green (for hope, life and vitality).

4. Childhood illnesses - Rainbow colors

5. Stomach ache - yellow or red

6. High blood pressure - black, white, light blue or light green to "calm" your nerves. Avoid red, an agitating color. Apply the same colors for heart problems.

Dress Your Children for Success

We recently talked about how the color of your clothes can make you smarter. You can also dress your children in certain colors for greater success.

There's a reason many children's toys and room decor products are in a rainbow of primary colors -- rainbow colors give young children (grades K - 6) all the virtues represented by the five elements, giving them the strong basis for a successful life.

Middle school age children thrive in black and green, which promote wisdom and encourage benevolence, respectively. In high school, students should continue to wear these colors, as well as red to encourage reason, as their reasoning and logic skills continue to develop. If you have an irrational teenager, (and which teen isn't, at times?) light green, light blue, or dark green for benevolence, or a combination of white, black, and green.

Best Colors for Athletes, Scholars and More
If you have a child who has trouble focusing, is hyperactive, or even diagnosed with ADD or ADHD, black and brown will calm the child down, help him focus, and also enhance loyalty. The color yellow for any child will bring out loyalty, honor and honesty.

Here are a few more colors and the traits that they will encourage to balance your child's chi:

Red and green: athletic ability and coordination
White or black: Intelligence
Green or blue: benevolence or liveliness
Black: calmness, focus
Rainbow colors: spirituality

When taking tests, encourage wearing the colors of black or white as this can help with concentration, intelligence, concentration and overall test scores.

Feng Shui Colors: A Room-By-Room Guide

One of the least expensive ways to give your home new life is a fresh coat of paint. Even those who live in apartments can often convince their landlord to let them paint, as long as they return the walls to plain white before they leave. The investment is minimal -- less than $80 buys three gallons of paint, rollers and brushes to do a few rooms.

But what are the best colors to paint using the principles of Feng Shui? It depends on the room. When you select colors for the floor, walls, and ceiling, make sure to employ the Five-Elemental Cycle using three colors. Also, don't think a ceiling has to be white; light beige or even brighter colors that complement the walls add depth and creativity to a room.

Entryway/Foyer - Small entryways are enhanced by lighting and light, bright colors. Off-white and shades of blue, pink or green represent hope and welcome. Green, black or red are auspicious colors for the front door. As with a fence, avoid a white front door. You can learn more about Feng Shui in your front entrance in this article.

Kitchen - The best color for a kitchen is white, the color of purity and cleanliness. White permits the food's true character and colors to show through -- bright reds, greens and yellows on a white pallet. The kitchen's basic element is fire, and metal (represented by white) overcomes fire to better balance the chi.

Avoid black and gray (water element), because it destroys fire, and avoid red, because it will make a kitchen too “hot,” literally and figuratively. A red kitchen may be prone to fires while the cook will be prone to temper flare-ups. Read more about Feng Shui in the kitchen.

Bedroom - The color of your bedroom will depend upon your age, personal goals, and whether your room is the master bedroom or not. Pink is best for a master bedroom, because the marriage position on the bagua is placed between fire (red) and metal (white), and pink is the blending of these two colors. Pink or red sheets and blankets ensure a “fiery” marriage bed.

For single people seeking a mate, pink or peach is an auspicious color for the bedroom.

For anyone else, subdued hues of greens and blues promote rest. You can learn more about how to use Feng Shui in the bedroom in this article.

Children, on the other hand, thrive in rooms of green, which create peaceful calm and serenity while encouraging learning and knowledge. This article talks about Feng Shui in a baby's nursery.

Dining Room - If you have a dining room where you eat and entertain as a family, pinks, greens and blues work best to encourage conversation and stimulate the palate. There's a reason many restaurants have green decor -- it stimulates the appetite. Avoid blacks and whites unless the goal is to lose weight.

Bathroom - The bathroom should be a sanctuary where you go to prepare yourself to face the day or retreat at night to prepare for sleep. The best colors for a bathroom include lighter shades of green, blues, pink, or white. Black or gray, which correspond to the water element, make good accent colors. Or, you can use pastels or white with bright accents to enliven the space. Remember, as one of the first rooms you visit in the morning, the bathroom is one of the three most important areas of the home in Feng Shui.  

Painting your home in pleasant, Feng Shui colors helps balance the chi within yourself, members of your family, and your home.

Feng Shui Your Clothes to Land a New Job

In the article “Best Colors For Your Career” we talked about the elements associated with various career paths. You can enhance your personal chi by dressing in clothing that matches your business.

But when you need to reinforce your chi for an important occasion -- a critical business meeting or a job interview -- you can also employ the five-elemental color cycle in a creative or destructive sequence.

Choose Your Colors
When you use this Feng Shui method to enhance your personal chi with your clothing, you can use three, four or five colors. In a three color sequence, you would consider your shoes, pants (or skirt) and top or even the pants or skirt, belt, and top (or the reverse for the destructive cycle). If you want to employ five colors, you'd begin with the shoes, include a belt and work up to a hat, scarf or necklace.

You have some leeway in the aspects of your clothing you use when employ the five elemental sequence. For the creative sequence, start from the bottom and work your way up. For the destructive sequence, begin at the top, with the first color/element “destroying” the one below it.

Don't Forget Aesthetics
If you looked at a the color chart for the color sequences, they would not all be aesthetically pleasing. You can use the color schemes as a guide to select shades of colors that complement each other. You can also consider employing the complementary colors as accent pieces--on a tie or the trim of a blouse or sweater, for instance.

Blue and green are the best colors to include for anyone on a job interview, or you can match your outfit to the colors that best fit your career.

Feng Shui Your Car for Safer Driving

You can employ the five-elemental creative and destructive cycles to your car in order to balance your personal chi, avoid accidents and get to places on time. When you employ the five-elemental cycle color scheme, you'll want to use three different colors: the carpet, upholstery and ceiling for the creative cycle, and the ceiling, upholstery and carpet for the destructive cycle.

It may be hard to find a car with the carpeting and ceiling in two different colors. Car mats that cover the bulk of the car's floor can easily change the color -- and chi -- of your car's interior.

Remember: the destructive cycle doesn't mean you'll get into accidents in your car; it's just another way of employing the five-elemental color scheme.

Here are some possible color schemes for cars based on the elemental cycles:

Creative Cycle Color Schemes:

Ceiling: gray/black
Upholstery: white
Carpet: tan/brown/orange/yellow

Ceiling: blue/green
Upholstery: gray/black
Carpet: white

Ceiling: red
Upholstery: gray/black
Carpet: white

Ceiling: tan/brown
Upholstery: red
Carpet: blue/green

Ceiling: white
Upholstery: tan/brown
Carpet: red

Destructive Cycle:

Ceiling: red
Upholstery: white
Carpet: blue/green

Ceiling: white
Upholstery: blue/green
Carpet: tan/brown

Ceiling: blue/green
Upholstery: tan/brown
Carpet: gray/black

Ceiling: tan/brown
Upholstery: gray/black
Carpet: red

Ceiling: gray/black
Upholstery: red
Carpet: white

A Feng Shui Car to Fit Your Personality
You'll notice the exterior isn't factored into the elemental cycle color scheme. The interior of a car will have far more effect on your chi than the car's exterior -- although you should also consider the exterior because of how it will affect others.

For instance, people who are easily excitable, “type-A” personalities, and perhaps prone to speeding, should avoid cars with red interiors, as that bright, fiery color will only encourage their lead foot. Likewise, a car with a red exterior is more likely to attract attention (and get tickets, according to studies.)

A black or gray car is associated with water and will balance the driver's chi, while also being far less conspicuous on the road. The perfect car for someone with an abundance of “fire” in their personality would be a gray car with black upholstery, or the reverse.

On the other hand, someone with a laid back personality, who might be slow to react, would enhance his chi and avoid accidents by driving a car with a red interior -- the color would wake the person up behind the wheel. Green, which is the color of wood, fuels fire, so that is another auspicious color for someone wishing to enhance the element of fire in his personality while driving.

If you haven't been getting desirable results while driving, if you've gotten into a lot of accidents recently, constantly arrive late to appointments, or get a lot of tickets, consider whether the Feng Shui colors in your car are complementing your personality and your chi or working against it.